JPMorgan Meetings Dominate Fed's Dodd-Frank Agenda

WASHINGTON — Large bank representatives met with regulators implementing the Dodd-Frank Act nearly 1,300 times during the past two years, or roughly 12.5 times a week since the reform law's passage, according to new analysis from the Sunlight Foundation.

During that time, regulators held only 242 meetings with reform-oriented organizations, or roughly 2.5 meetings per week, the nonpartisan group said.

The Sunlight Foundation, which analyzed the public meeting logs of the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve Board and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, released the results Thursday on its website.

Lee Drutman, a senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, said the meetings do not prove influence, but said it "does call attention to the intensity of resources that big banks are devoting to Dodd-Frank rulemaking."

"Still, meetings are likely to be influential for a simple reason," Drutman wrote in the analysis. "Most of these rulemakings deal with highly complex subjects. Regulators are overburdened. To the extent that regulators are relying on bank representatives to understand the technical side of these rules, they are likely to see the world from the banks' perspective. This is bound to have at least some impact on how the final rules turn out."

Of the largest banks, Goldman Sachs held the most meetings, with 181 discussions, primarily with the CFTC, on topics such as swap execution facilities registration, position limits and real-time reporting.

But JPMorgan Chase was close behind, with 175 meetings during the past two years, mostly with Fed and Treasury officials.

Treasury met with bank officials 302 times during the past two years, with JPMorgan accounting for 17% of such meetings. Conversations at Treasury primarily centered around the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to the analysis.

Morgan Stanley, meanwhile, met with regulators 150 times, while Bank of America held 122 meetings and Citigroup held 102. Morgan Stanley met primarily with the CFTC (70 meetings), while BofA and Citigroup met mostly with the Fed (54 and 41 meetings, respectively).

The CFTC held the most meetings overall, with 683, while the Treasury Department held 447 and the Fed had 410.

Reform groups met primarily with the Treasury, clocking in with 145 meetings. In contrast, the CFTC held 80 meetings with reform groups, while the Fed held only 17.

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